Nicholas Alvernaz, 22, of Cotuit, died this past March after his kayak overturned off Wellfleet.
According to Jack Styler of the Provincetown Independent, the emergency response to his distress call was flawed.
CAI's Gilda Geist spoke to Jack to learn more.
Gilda Geist What was Alvernaz doing out on the water that day, and how did he get into trouble?
Jack Styler Nicholas Alvernaz was a student at the University of Vermont studying archaeology, and according to his father, Tony Alvernaz, he was preparing to write a paper on Billingsgate Island, which is a once-inhabited area south of Jeremy Point in Wellfleet's harbor, and it's an area that's only visible at low tide. And so, his father says that he was going out to Billingsgate Island with his kayak to explore the area and look for artifacts. Unfortunately, that day he did get into some trouble when making his way back to the parking lot, but we were able to piece together what happened through public records requests and phone tracking software that was on his phone that was shared with the Independent. And so, we do know that that day he had paddled along the west side of Great Island to the tip of Jeremy Point, had gone to Billingsgate Island and then had seemingly returned to Jeremy Point. And after that, it appears as if he decided to get back into his kayak and perhaps made an attempt to cross what is known as the Gut to get back to the area where his car was parked.
GG You reported a number of mistakes or problems that came up during the emergency response. What were those and what is your understanding of how they happened?
JS We don't know exactly how this happened, and that's because the town administrator, Tom Guerino, declined to comment for this article, and the harbormaster, Michael Cavanaugh, also declined to comment. But using public records requests, we were able to piece together what appears to be a rescue that went wrong. When Alvernaz called 911 and told an operator that he had overturned in his kayak, the harbormaster had no boat in the water. He and his assistant David Dalby used Dalby's personal truck to launch the town's 24-foot Carolina Skiff instead of the blue rescue boat. After that, the two of them went onto the harbor with some staff from the Wellfleet Fire Department, but during their search, they had trouble plotting coordinates that were being relayed from county dispatchers that plotted Alvernaz's location as he was being swept out further into the harbor. And then, some 30 minutes into their search, that Carolina Skiff that they had launched ran out of gas. After that, there was a call to try to bring in more resources to try to locate Alvernaz. After just about two hours in the water, Alvernaz was eventually found by a member of the harbormaster's staff, but unfortunately, he, by that point, was unconscious and was rushed to Cape Cod Hospital in critical condition, where he was later declared dead.
GG You reported that there were at least a couple of instances where Wellfleet's town administrator tried to keep this information from getting out. Can you tell us more about what you found?
JS In the months following Alvernaz's death, we really haven't heard much of anything from the town about what happened that day. But through records requests, we were able to find that on March 26, Tom Guerino, the town administrator in Wellfleet, sent an email to Harbormaster Cavanaugh, his assistants, Police Chief Kevin LaRocco, Fire Chief Joe Capello and Assistant Town Administrator John Bugbee that said that any discussion of Alvernaz's rescue needs to be "nonexistent." Then, later, on June 4, the then-chair of the marina advisory committee said in a public meeting that he had been planning to put an item on the agenda to discuss what had happened to Alvernaz that day, but Guerino asked him to leave it off.
GG What's next? Does it seem like we'll ever find out why this young man, who had plenty of experience kayaking in that particular area, died?
JS Well, it's a great question, Gilda, and it's one that the Alvernaz family is unfortunately still asking. And that's because Tony Alvernaz, Nicholas's father, did have a conversation, he told me, with Tom Guerino on July 31. But According to Alvernaz, Tom Guerino was not able to provide many details for what happened, but did say that the incident was being reviewed. That has caused Alvernaz to think more deeply about whether or not he wants to pursue taking legal action against the town of Wellfleet. He has told me since that he is planning on trying to meet with local politicians to get more answers about why Wellfleet did not, he says, have the appropriate emergency response that day.
